If you're new to gaming (or at least not a gaming veteran), you may not have heard of the original Gauntlet before. First released a little over 10 years ago Gauntlet pioneered the idea of 4 player shooting action from a top-down perspective. A major selling point was the fantasy setting the game used. In a world currently in a peak of Dungeons and Dragons mania the idea of getting together with 3 friends with a group of adventurers made up of a warrior, wizard, archer and valkyrie was just too much to resist. Home versions of Gauntlet were then created, including an excellent Commodore 64 version, which also used the first real digitised speech used in a computer game. It is the hack and slash action of the original that has been retained in GL, and it may be this gameplay that may make the game seem less appealing as gamers search for more depth in console games.

The huge selling point of Gauntlet always has been its multi-player aspect. Up to 4 players can take part in some hectic hack and slash action, which already makes this title far more engaging than Soul Fighter. The developers have opted for a screen share technique rather than split screen, so players may find themselves getting stuck on the edge of the screen as their friends try and walk off in the opposite direction. While this is incredibly annoying at first, it does instil a feeling of working as a team. This feeling soon gets overrun by frustration however as with some of the cramped environments it is still a pain in the backside to get trapped on a wall near a group of monsters just because your fellow players ran too far ahead.